Matchday 6: Top games guaranteed - Magdeburg at Flensburg, Löwen at Füchse and THW at HSVH

Thursday, 10 October:

• The 24:29 at THW Kiel was Stuttgart's third HBL defeat in a row, and they were also knocked out of the cup by second division team Coburg. With just one win in six games, TVB are currently in 16th place.
• Melsungen continued their upward trend with a narrow 26:24 win against newly promoted Bietigheim and are in fourth place in the table with 8:2 points. On Tuesday evening, the North Hesse team started the group phase of the European League in Porto victorious.
• Kai Häfner, who played his 500th HBL game two weeks ago, will face his previous club with TVB.
• The overall record of both teams is almost even: eight Stuttgart wins are offset by nine MT victories. In the previous season, both teams won their home games.

• SG BBM Bietigheim are hoping for their first home points of the season against Lemgo, Iker Romero's team has won all four points so far away from home.
• With 4:6 points, the promoted team is currently twelfth, lost the last two games in Melsungen and against Gummersbach, and was also eliminated in the cup against Eisenach.
• TBV Lemgo Lippe did not only advance to the cup round of 16 with a confident win in Ludwigshafen, but also ended SC DHfK Leipzig's winning streak with a 33:28 win on the last HBL matchday. With 6:4 points, Florian Kehrmann's team is tenth.
• Lemgo have won three of the four duels against Bietigheim so far, but in the last encounter in May 2019 the SG had the upper hand with a score of 25:23.

Friday, 11 October:

• With 2:8 points after one win and four losses each, both teams are currently tied on points in 13th and 15th place. Both successes came away: Eisenach won in Erlangen, Wetzlar in Stuttgart.
• Both teams remained pointless on the fifth matchday: ThSV Eisenach lost 26:28 in Hanover, HSG Wetzlar lost 25:34 at home to Berlin.
• With 33 goals, Eisenach's national player Marko Grgic is currently the eighth best scorer in the league.
• Since 2013, HSG has won all six games against Eisenach, the last ThSV win dates back to 2004, and the overall score is 12:4 in favor of HSG.

• The last time the two northern rivals faced each other was on 3 October, with THW Kiel winning the second round of the DHB-Cup in Hamburg 30:27. In the round of 16, Kiel will host defending champions Magdeburg on November 13th/14th.
• Currently, the two clubs are only one point apart in the HBL table: THW Kiel have gained 6:4 points, Hamburg 5:5.
• On Monday evening, HSVH lost 27:30 to Rhein-Neckar Löwen despite a great comeback - after two wins in a row.
• Only in the final phase did THW Kiel pull ahead on the fifth matchday with a 29:24 win against TVB Stuttgart.
• With 38 goals, Kiel's new signing Emil Madsen is currently fourth among the HBL top scorers, and Andreas Wolff is the third-best goalkeeper with 60 saves.
• THW have so far won 24:3 matches and drawn five times against Hamburg in the Bundesliga, while HSVH has only celebrated two home victories against the Zebras, most recently in 2010. In the previous season, THW won their home game 34:23, while in Hamburg the two teams drew 28:28.

• SG Flensburg-Handewitt is the only undefeated team after five match days, but recently dropped its first point in a 29:29 draw in Gummersbach.
• Magdeburg, who easily beat Göppingen 31:24 on Monday evening thanks to 15 saves by goalkeeper Sergej Hernandez, have played one game less due to their participation in the Club World Cup and have scored 6:2 points, with their only defeat coming against Kiel-
• With 177 goals after five games, SG have the best attack in the league, along with Füchse Berlin.
• With 42 goals, SG left wing Emil Jakobsen is currently the second-best scorer in the league.
• SCM narrowly missed defending its title at the Club World Cup last week, losing the final in Cairo 33:34 after extra time against Veszprem.
• In the overall HBL record, SG is ahead with 34:26 wins, but SCM won the last three duels. In Flensburg, however, the SG is a force, winning 28 of the 32 games.

• After the 25:25 against Hamburg on the first match day, FRISCH AUF! Göppingen lost the following four HBL games and are still waiting for their first win with 1:9 points in second-to-last place. On Monday, Benjamin Matschke's team lost 24:31 in Magdeburg.
• In contrast, VfL Gummersbach took 5:1 points from their last three games, and after away wins in Stuttgart and Bietigheim, VfL was the first team to win a point against Flensburg on Sunday - thanks to Kentin Mahé's equalizer at the final whistle. With 7:5 points, Gummersbach are currently sixth ranked.
• In the last two seasons, both teams have won their home games, the last away win in Göppingen was taken by VfL in 2013, but overall Gummersbach are clearly ahead with 35:21 wins.

Sunday, 13 October:

• The third-placed team is visiting the second-placed team, who are on the same number of points - both teams have four wins and one loss and 8:2 points in their current record.
• On the fifth matchday, Löwen won 30:27 against Hamburg, Füchse 34:25 in Wetzlar.
• The current leader of the HBL goal scorers list, Ivan Martinovic (Löwen/45 goals), will lock horns with the third-placed Mathias Gidsel (Füchse/41 goals).
• With 73 saves, Löwen goalkeeper David Späth leads the league's goalkeeping rankings and will also face Lasse Ludwig, with whom he formed the German team at the successful U21 World Championship in 2023.
• In mid-November, both teams will duel again in the round of 16 of the DHB Cup, this time in Mannheim. Füchse narrowly beat Göppingen in round two, the Löwen defeated second division team Hagen.
• At the final tournament of the European League in May in Hamburg, Füchse and Löwen finished second and third.
• The HBL record of both teams is absolutely even with 15 wins each and three draws, but: since May 2021, the Füchse have won all seven games. Löwen celebrated the last of four away wins in the capital (in 17 comparisons) in February 2021.

• Promoted team VfL Potsdam is the only team in the HBL without a point, but has only played four games; most recently, Emir Kurtagic's team lost 19:23 in Erlangen.
• After the 28:32 at the start of the season against VfL Gummersbach, TSV Hannover-Burgdorf have won all four games, most recently a 28:26 against Eisenach; with 8:2 points, the Recken are currently fifth ranked.
• 71 of the 163 Recken goals so far have been scored by U21 world champions Renars Uscins (38) and Justus Fischer (33).
• While Hannover-Burgdorf reached the round of 16 in the cup with a narrow victory at VfL Lübeck-Schwartau and will now face Flensburg, Potsdam failed in the first round in Rostock.

Monday, 14 October:

• SC DHfK Leipzig have a clean home record and took all six points in its home arena thanks to its successes against Stuttgart, Gummersbach and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen.
• The Saxons recently lost 28:33 in Lemgo and are in ninth place with 6:4 points.
• In new coach Martin Schwalb's league debut, HC Erlangen celebrated their first win of the new season on the last matchday with a 23:19 win against Potsdam, after having previously narrowly lost in the cup in Gummersbach. With 2:8 points, the HCE is currently in 14th place.
• Leipzig won both duels against Erlangen in the previous season and four of the last five games against the Franconians. The overall record is closer with 9:7 wins, the HCE has never won in Leipzig.